Discus community Tank

shucks I wish I had heard that before I painted the background black? How would I get the black enamel off the back of the tank? should I go with a light blue or white??

Now that the tank is full its such a mission to get to the back of the tank.


Tank is 50cm wide and 60cm high

 

I used Nitromors with a combination of a new paint remover from Plascon. Its apparently organic and comes in spray form. I also battled to remove the black on my Discus tank, had a 15cm area to work with behind the tank and had to do some odd bending to work.

Blue works....

You gonna battle with some of the plants that require more light. I have 8X39W T5 over a 600 deep tank and its not always enough. Plants like Swords, Limophila Sessiflora and Hygrophila Polysperma grow quite well under lowish light

 

Is the black background actuall bad for the fish, or is it just that the colours of the fish will not look good?

 

Its not bad for them, they just darken up incredibly, almost black. Which kind of defeats the purpose of having Discus

 

Damn, just bought this light fitting, but if anyone would like to buy if from me {Brand new} R950? The problem it that there just isn't a nice 5ft fitting that does 3-4 T5 tubes. Most of the fittings are for are for a 4ft tank.

My canopy is open at the top so can't just put tubes and ballast as it will light up the whole room.

 

Use it for the moment and try it out....

 

Yip maybe I can add on another fitting when required.

 

did you notice any increase in peppering in your discus over the 6 months??

Is this a proven fact?? That dark backgrounds will increase peppering?

Jan, you have black gravel in that one tank, doesn't it affect your discus??

 

Mine aren't pigeon blood strains, so I don't get peppering. Look around on the simplydiscus forum, there was a post where I guy compared it over a couple of weeks and there was a marked difference

 

Hi

The gravel did not do much. They don't change. But as soon as i added the dark background they turned. and they stayed that way until i changed it to the blue..

 

damn, now I have to empty my tank again so I can move it away from the wall to repaint the background. Hopefully a stanely blade will scrap the black enamel off easily but I will see. Something for me to do this week-end before i go away.

 

WELL!!

Let me tell you guys I feel like killign who ever told me to change thepaint color in the back of the tank. Took me about 10 Hrs to scrap all the black paint off. However.......

I do think the blue looks better, I got about 10 plants, 10 rummy nose tetras and 20 Cardinals.

My tank is now about 2 months old and seems to be getting a lot of green algae on the glass, I've only done 1 water change since I had to refill the tank. Is the aglae normal??

I also have had about 9 of the cardinal die, whats the probable reason?? A few may have gone over the overflow until I covered it.

The water looks milky if I look at it from the side?? any advise??